"So I had problems with the counterintelligence, because in Tábor they ran into me and de facto wanted me to cooperate with them, and that kind of private chat - I don't think that belongs on a program like this. I refused several times in a row. Actually, then it dragged on with me until the end, until the '80s. The thing about their activities was that we didn't like them very much because of the fact that-at least me and my colleagues did-because they knew a lot of things that were going on in the department, and they abused their positions. So when we talked about the bullying, for example, they knew where the bullying was, who the bully was, but because it was also their snitch, they didn't tell us anything. "Look, over there in the engineering unit, there's bullying going on, you'll have trouble there." "What's going on?" "I cannot tell you."
"Big problem - alcohol. Unfortunately, the habit was such that alcohol was consumed in large measure by my service." - "On duty?" - "On duty, too. My father didn't consume hard alcohol at all, he had the occasional beer - as it used to be. I inherited that from him, and my mother couldn't even have alcohol at all. So I had alcohol as something I considered absolutely unacceptable. But at that time it couldn't be completely eradicated. The alcohol was actually consumed in quite large [quantities] and quite normally. But what did happen, for example, was that there was a club in Týn nad Vltavou, but then it was also later in Tabor, so there were all these different celebrations and things like that outside the department. But the fact is that even the soldiers had a problem with alcohol for the most part. Going out meant going to a pub to get drunk if possible. So yes, there were quite big problems with alcohol. Alcohol was very often behind a lot of tragic events, which of course..." - "Like accidents?" - "There were accidents, but there were also fights and even the use of a gun. So alcohol was a big problem, and I think it wasn't solved all the time."
"What happened there was that under normalisation after that first year, and even in that year actually, almost the whole command was changed - many of our commanders, platoon leaders, company commanders and so on. And that had a negative impact on us because we started protesting. We weren't learning - at least in our platoon. So then when we proceeded to graduation, it was a big problem to do the graduation, but we did it 99%." - "And the 'death rate' overall?" - "A lot of people left because they didn't want to be there again after that first year, and partly after the second year, when they passed on hepatitis and various diseases like that, which meant that person had to leave."
Jiří Šedivý was born on 3 January 1953 in Příbram, but from his first days he lived in Manětín near Pilsen. In 1968-1971 he studied at the Jan Žižka z Trocnova Military High School in Moravská Třebová. In 1971-1975 he studied at the Military College of Land Forces in Vyškov. Then he joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ). From 1975 he worked as the head of the tank company of the 57th Motorized Artillery Regiment in Stříbro. In 1976-1978 he completed postgraduate studies at the Military Academy in Brno. He then served as commander of the 2nd Tank Battalion of the 18th Tank Regiment in Tábor, where he took over as deputy regimental commander in 1982. In Tábor he was approached by the Military Counterintelligence (VKR) with an offer of cooperation, which he always refused. From 1985 he was the commander of the 17th Tank Regiment in Týn nad Vltavou. In 1990, he took over as Chief of Staff of the 4th Tank Division in Havlíčkův Brod. From 1993 to 1994, he graduated from the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He then served in Havlickuv Brod and Olomouc. Later, he served as an inspector of the Czech Army Ground Forces and from 1 April 1997 as Chief of the Combat Training Section of the General Staff of the Czech Army. In 1997, he became Commander of the Czech Army Ground Forces. In 1998-2002, he served as Chief of the General Staff of the Czech Army. In 2002, he was appointed to the rank of Army General. In 2024 he lived in Prague.
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